Warm Belgium days...

Today was another nice day here in West Vlanderdaan. After a leisurely morning, I rolled out for what I thought would be just an easy 2 hours as I was feeling tired from the previous days training and racing and the racing I have planned for Tuesday and Wednesday. Having just arrived here on Friday, i am still very unsure of the area and the neighboring towns, so each trip on the bike is an adventure. The plan was to roll west for a little bit before heading south and grabbing a koffie in Warregem. I ended up rolling much further southwest and ending up in the super cool Kortrijk. Kortrijk is a pretty good size Belgian city with a beautiful church and clocktower in the town center. Lots of boutique shopping too.

http://www.kortrijk.be/

After rolling through the town a bit, I made my way out after a couple of wrong turns. Traversing in Belgium is by village. So if you are on a bike, then you follow signs for villages to map your course. Street signs that mark roads aren't very popular. Its pretty handy at times, but other times its quite confusing. Nice 3 hour ride at the end.

Tomorrow I am racing in Wakken which is just 5k away so no super day tomorrow.

Gregg and Kutsie are racing in a pro kermesse tomorrow with Tornado Tom and Aussie Robbie McEwen. It should be a good day for me. I am rolling with a lot of confidence from the last race. This time, I will have plenty of fluids and some food in the pocket.

Living the euro pro lifestyle is so different from being at home. Its definitely been good for me to relax and just be able to focus on the bike. At home I would go riding out the door by 6:15am and get in 3-4 hours before rolling into work. Never leaving proper time for recovering or resting. One of the things I have to be careful with here is not overtraining b/c I have so much more time to ride. A new saying that I have picked up is "I'm going training." Which means I am going out for some bike workouts. It seems to be the euro way of saying things. In the US we talk about workouts, here everyone says they are going training which could mean 1hour to flush out the legs or 6 hard hours in the wind. Funny how things are said across the pond.

For all of you Austin Powers fans, I know I am, I am just about 30-40k from Brugge, "That's where Daddy's from." My college roommate Nik Hartney and I use to watch those movies all the time, never gets old.

I found a place to go sailing on the coast, Niewpoort, like the Newport, RI. I might take a trip out there one day and ride along the coast and try to rent a sailboat. Will keep you posted.

Tot Ziens,
Matthew